The weekend noise-makers behind me the next street over?  Have quit.  I dunno why, but ever since the 3rd visit to their house in the same night by Phoenix police a couple of weeks ago, there hasn't been a peep from them.  

Ummm, so I have been talking with a lady that I have known since the mission field.  No great details going on here, but some intense conversations about things going on with her kids - really not so great things - and her divorce situation.  But also some very pleasant conversations.  

I don't want to go on with that too much, it may lead nowhere but at the very least, we have been connecting on FB for a while now and talking.

I'm tired of being single, lol.

I was going to write up a "full" entry but it's my bedtime, so I bed you a good night : )

ben

Neglect of my journal.
I have several unfinished drafts, just keep getting interrupted/distracted every time I start writing an entry.

Anyway, I was just checking Zillow for the value of my home.  Some people say it's not a good reflection of actual home value, but I figure it's gotta be somewhere in the ballpark.  Home values in the Phoenix area have risen dramatically this year - and mine is definitely on that list.  According to Zillow, it is almost valued at the amount I owe on the property.  Note that 3 months ago, it was around 50 grand in the hole.  Will it stay there or even go up?  Well, I have no choice but to stay here and see what happens.  I need to get my credit score up higher to be able to get into another home anyway.

I really, really, really want out of the city of Phoenix.  The water rates and the taxes they are dumping on everyone is nothing short of outrageous and finding out the pension spiking with the unions that are working for the city - taking these tax increases and using that money for absurdly high pay increases and bonuses - is also nothing short of outrageous.

But I will have to stick it out here for - who knows how long, I am really in no position to be able to view into the crystal ball and give that kind projection.

As for the new tenant, he is already gone.  Moved to Boston to move into what is nothing short of a mansion in a very ritzy area of town.  He will be a nanny/personal assistant type of thing and will be making very good money plus all expenses paid.  I have seen a picture of the house, it's unbelievable.  Good for him is all I can say, I wouldn't have turned down such an offer, either.  The lady that owns the house is a successful dentist who owns her own dental clinic.

There isn't a whole lot new going on around here anyway, in terms of writing in this journal.  My next door neighbor will be back soon enough and who knows what's going to happen between him and his neighbor on the other side, time will tell if he really intends to follow through with a lawsuit to get his land back.

As for the neighbor behind me, I saw him last weekend and told him if he didn't clean up all that cat s*** which piles up against my fence on his side, I would be calling the city to come out and write him a ticket.  "Oh, is it that time again?", acting as if it's normal to let that kind of substance pile up for months and months at a time and is exactly what I said to him in reply.  Are you serious?  You think it's normal to let animal feces just pile up until someone has to threaten civil action to get you to do anything?  While we were at it, I informed him he didn't deal with the dirt that has also been building up against that fence - I am on mountain base, his lot is higher than mine, whenever it rains or just time, more dirt piles up against that wood fence - I would simply take him to court and have a judge force him to repair the damage it's doing to my fence.  "I'll see you in court" was his reply, I said fine, see you in court and walked off.

So, it wasn't amazing that he cleaned up the cat crap - I called the city last time and they definitely came out and told him if he didn't have it cleaned up within 24 hours they were going to cite him for it.  But what did amaze me was when I looked over the fence to ensure he had cleaned all of that up, he had also dug out all the dirt that was pushing my fence in!

Regardless of his sour, grating attitude, I will still thank him for doing all of that next time I see him, which is quite infrequently.  I don't really go out of my way to see him or any of the other - people - that are living like hoarders in this neighborhood.  Besides the city taxes, this neighborhood and the people who live in it and the WAY they live in it the other reason I really want out of here.

I want to move back to Tempe - the next city over.  I want to move into a regular, site-built house and in a neighborhood where people take care of their properties but at the same time I do not want to be in a neighborhood that has a homeowner's association.  People should not have to be forced to take care of their properties, pride-of-ownership should be the motivating factor for that.  There are a lot of very nice, older neighborhoods in Tempe with block-built homes (versus the stucco junk they want to build everything out of nowadays, it's cheap and it doesn't last long before you have to have someone come fix the cracks that form in it over time) that do not have associations lording themselves over everyone.  Many of these homeowner's associations get filled with board members who seem to have serious control issues.  They want to tell you where you can have your satellite dish mounted, what color to paint your home, what kinds of plants and trees you can have, etc.  I don't want that kind of control over my life, thanks.

It's Sunday morning, getting my mind/heart into church mode.  Another hour before I leave for that.  I have no great agendas today for after church, just want to kick back and relax, maybe do some outdoor chores but nothing too serious.  It's still getting quite warm in the afternoons, I can't wait until the middle of October or so when it cools down to the point that it's cool all day long and you can actually air out the house!

That's enough for now, maybe continue later.

ben

3:00 am this morning or thereabouts. Sleeping soundly.  I'm suddenly jarred awake by the sound of what else: obnoxious music.  This time, they started this nonsense at that hour of the night.  Unbelievable.  But it wasn't the people on the next street behind me.  They have been eerily quiet ever since the third police visit in the same night that occurred 8 days ago.

This time, it was a pickup truck parked in front of their house 5 houses down from me.  They were out in the STREET, drinking and having no cares that they were both blaring the music so loud that I could hear it in my bedroom some 300 feet away and also that they were drinking in public, not even thinking that police might come.  Well, I had the decision to either call the police or go down there and deal with it - I opted for the police.  My methods of dealing with people who don't give a damn about anyone else are not the best, so I figured to let professionals do it.

But after 30 minutes police hadn't shown up.  Called again, police are busy.  I thought it strange at that hour of the night, that late you would think even the worst trouble-makers are sleeping or passed out.  But I guess not, especially in a city this big.

It was 71 minutes after I made the phone call and the sun was starting to show faint rays of light that they finally showed up and shut them down.  What they actually did about it, I dunno.

So, I was very tired this morning and I was supposed to show up early at church to finish the membership training class.  But I had missed the last 2 times to finish this up - for valid reasons - but I decided to go regardless of extreme fatigue.  This s*** going on in my neighborhood is wearing thin on me, though, I  really don't know how much more of this I can take.  It's ridiculous that I have to call the police multiple times in a single night to come out and tell the same party to quiet down.  It's unbelievable that some freaks could just park on the street and have a  party - in the middle of the street at 3 am.

So I'm finally a member of the church and now opportunity to serve has arisen.  I learned some things in these classes about church liability that I didn't know before and some of it is concerning the fact that liability insurance usually only covers people serving in the church that are members, not non-members.  The situation that they had approached me about some months ago - security in the church during services - resurfaced.  I hadn't even thought about the fact that I would have to be an official member of the church to be in such a position, especially considering what security can detail.  I did security during services in the big tent while on the mission field - I was tall, muscular and not easily intimidated.  I'm still tall, not as muscular as I used to be.  Being intimidated isn't an issue, but dealing with people with wisdom and in a professional manner is something that I will have to take up again from my missionary experience.

You would be surprised the amount of trouble that will come at a big tent with an evangelist preaching and the amount of trouble-makers that are - looking for trouble.  There were a few occasions where I had to inform the individual/s that if they continued, they would be forcibly removed from the property, but mostly it was just talk calmly to them and that would take care of most situations.

Well, anyway, they are going to fire it up soon - no date given yet, probably get one Sunday per month.  That was the hold up, having enough people that they felt "qualified" to deal with such.  Or even wanting to deal with such.

The weekend over, I took a nap this afternoon but I'm tired and it's directly related to these people running these stereos late at night. Someone posted a link on my FB wall about how to build some sort of transmitter that kills electronics.  No thanks.  If it kills their electronics, it's going to kill everything else around.  But I did read on blurp about CB radios. I had totally forgotten about that.  I don't even know if CB's are still capable of the mayhem they can cause' on TV's and stereos.  I remember as a teenager, we would stop in front of a house that had it's front window open and you could see the TV on.  Key down the mic on the CB and the screen on the TV would blank out completely.  When we spoke into the mic, you could see these huge lines moving up and down on the screen.

The same was with car stereos - though I think that was radios, I don't know if it would have the same effect on a CD player.  I'll have to look all of this up, though I already have a CB radio, I don't have a linear amplifier - it cranks up the output and you really need one to make it work well.

Wait and see thing for me.  The people the next street over did nothing over there this weekend and the deal on the street down from my house had never happened before or if it did, they didn't have the music turned up that loud.

And with that? The weekend is - ended.  6 pm, winding down and thinking about work tomorrow.  Mostly in terms of taking my Christianity with me and fending off the enemy.

G'day

ben

It was refreshing, last night, to be able to go outside and not hear any  of the loud music and yelling people that I have had to listen to for quite a while now on Fridays and Saturdays.  Today remains to be seen.  But at first hint of it, I will immediately call the police to get the ball rolling.

Cleaned out one fish filter today - it was so full of fish filth it was pretty nasty.  No wonder that water was turning black.  Now I am going to have to clean it out everyday for a while until the water clears up, yikes!  The other one I haven't done yet, but it should be much better shape and not so much fish junk to deal with.

Work yesterday - nothing.  Nothing at all.  I decided to wash and detail the semi tractor, including waxing it.  I spent about 6 hours sweating like a pig in the heat and humidity.  Whenever I walked into the building it was like walking into the Antarctica, it was cold and I would quickly head back outside after getting water.  What I found laughable was that the new guy did much of nothing yesterday.  He sat in the manager's office cumulatively for at least 2 hours, playing on his I-phone.

Meanwhile, there was and is all sorts of cleanup projects he could be doing.  It really irked me.  Like gee, maybe I should just sit around on my @$$ and see what happens - nothing apparently.  Just pull out the ole' laptop and screw around on the internet all day long.

But I am not a person inclined to do such things, if I'm working I'm going to work for my pay and anyway, sitting around doing nothing is pretty boring stuff.  Makes me want to fall asleep.

_______________

Got the other pond filter done and over with - wanted to take a shower and that would be a waste of time if I didn't do the second pond filter first.

I'm off to do - nothing actually.  Pond filters were the big thing of the day on the agenda list, nothing else is that urgent at this moment.

G'day
ben

It has become evident that my manager is not liking the way the huge driveway - at least 125 feet long and 30 feet wide - is looking after I stopped cleaning up the rocks that the new guy is constantly dumping all over the place. That, after the new guy attempted to dress-me-down and tell me that appearance is irrelevant, rocks on the driveway to not impede the operation of the business and that he doesn't care and then demanded to know how, exactly, he was supposed to keep the rocks from dumping onto the ground.

I did tell him how that would be done - this isn't even common sense, it's just plain knowledge, which he scoffed and then told me I could go f*** myself.  It was at that point it took everything I had within me to stop myself from hauling off and knocking his teeth out of his head.  I was pissed.

So, my manager has asked me once to sweep up the rocks and then today, use the air blower.  Yeah, right.  I'm going to do all the cleanup so this guy can come along and dump s*** all over the place.  I have the perfect solution for this the next time he asks: Yes, I will clean up the rocks as long as you force HIM to clean them up along side me.  Otherwise, it's meaningless to him and his attitude of "I don't care" - which is what he said when this situation above occurred - will prevail.  I refuse to be this guy's personal maid.  Further, my manager used to say when I was out there cleaning up the yard; "I can hire a dude for 12 bucks an hour to do that, I need you doing other stuff".  Whatever.  He's got that guy there now and he refuses to force him to clean up.  Instead, that new guy was sitting in my manager's office for over an hour this morning - playing on his smart phone, my manager doing nothing about it.  He spent much of the rest of the day sitting behind a computer reading the BBC among other websites.

There was nothing in the system at work to do today - NOTHING AT ALL - so I decided to detail the semi-tractor. Namely, washing it and then waxing it.  I wanted to get a solid coating of wax on the truck so it would be easier to rinse off and keep clean, versus un-waxed/polished paint.

Ummm, long delay.  Saw my neighbors behind me spying on me for whatever reason, I'm starting to get very unhappy with these people.

ben

There is so much to write about, but goodness, do I write a 10,000 word blog entry?  I think not.

We all know it's 9/11 and what that intones.  The murder of over 3,000 people in the World Trade Center towers in Manhatton. Yes, I am home from work for the day and yes, I am definitely watching some shows. For me, I think it important to remember this day and honor it, respect it and give it the reverence it's due.  Terrorists be damned.

But today is a very special day for me: it's my mom's birthday.  She's getting up there in years, but she is still doing very well.  I have wished her a happy birthday a dozen times on her and my facebook wall and other venues, at least, lol. If you want to call me a momma's boy, so beit, I unabashedly love my mother dearly.  I talk to her on the phone about once a week and shoot pm's on FB and talk on either of our walls almost daily.  To have both of my parents still alive at the age that I am at is a blessing itself.

Just got off the phone with her.  It's important to try to make people feel special on their birthdays, I don't care how old or young you are.

Court yesterday.

I came home after getting off of work early, Eddie came over, we drove downtown. Eddie is an easily distracted 16 year old teenager. He has an I-Phone with which he plays games on when bored.  This day, I figured, would be especially trying for him since court can be long and very drawn out.  Can be,  my @$$, it almost ALWAYS is.  I find court proceedings fascinating but I am probably not in the majority with that observation.

It was about a 2 hour ordeal.  Our showing up threw a fork into the defendant's lawyers plans.  His surprise to find us there and the fact his client was NOT there spoke volumes.  He was going to do the same thing the first 2 cases had happen: no witnesses, dismiss the case, which the judge did without reservation. She was going to get off the hook, there was going to be nothing, even paying me back for vet bills and that would be that.

I am not, however, vindictive and I still did not want 6 charges against her showing up on her record, so I still agreed to 1 class 1 misdemeanor, plus probation, plus paying me the debt owed.  I thought it shitty that she had started crap with me and that she couldn't face me in the courtroom.  But she had stopped coming over and giving me money to pay it back - even 5 bucks would have satisfied me and her lowest payment was 8.  She had lost her job - working at Dennys, the only way you're going to lose your job there is that you are the problem I am guessing - but still, I wanted to do the merciful thing.

Eddie was poking me, playing his game, making stupid comments, on and on while we were sitting in that court room with nothing going on.  The other side of the aisle was full of law enforcement.  Uniformed cops and obviously detectives in dress clothes.  The lead cop in the investigation about the dog situation was there, they were ALL on smart phones, doing whatever.  Well anyway.  She was given a year's probation, remain a "law abiding" citizen, pay restitution.  If she fails on any of those counts, including any of those dogs getting out again, she's toast. Not that I want that, but.........if you are going to own dogs that are not trained and are vicious, well.

So that's that.  I'm going to finish watching a show on 9/11 and then head off to bed.

G'day.

And thank God that nothing happened today in that realm.

ben

I found "it".
Yes sir, this is what I was looking for, copied and pasted as follows.  It's called the Loud Party Ordinance and it comes into play with 5 or more people.  There are usually anywhere from 15 to 30 people at these parties.

Ordinance G-5444, Chapter 2, Article 1, Division 5, Section 2-22, was amended to increase neighborhood safety and reduce threats to the public peace, health, safety and general welfare. The ordinance addresses parties, social gatherings or events which result in disturbing the peace, quiet and enjoyment of our community. These occurrences often lead to excessive noise and traffic, obstruction of public streets, public drunkenness, underage drinking, fights and littering, among other problems.
Some factors which may determine a violation of the ordinance are:

• Loud music, Band or Disc Jockey
• Numerous vehicles causing traffic hazards or blocking driveways, streets and alleys
• Underage Drinking
• Making excessive noise
• Fights / public drunkenness
• Gun shots / fireworks
• Littering
• Illegal drug use
• Squealing tires and speeding through neighborhood streets

• There are no “allowable” times during the day or night. If the party, gathering, or event is considered a threat to the peace, health, safety and general welfare of the public, anytime during the night or day, the responsible party will be assessed a fee of up to $1,000.00.

  
  

http://phoenix.gov/police/loud_party_eng.html


 This is exactly the kind of ammo I need against these people behind me that blared their obnoxious music both Friday and Saturday night. If this nonsense happens again this weekend - or any weekend in the coming months, this is what I am going to ask the Phoenix Police to impose upon the owner of that house.  

The 1st, 2cd, and 4th apply to these people.  This will be my call next weekend - actually they are also doing it sometimes during the week now - and my request, impose the fee and these people will start thinking twice about being so obnoxious in their demeanor towards everyone else in the neighborhood.  Now, whether the police will actually do this to them or not remains to be seen, but I will be asking them to contact me the next time this happens versus that rest of the times I did not want police contact - mostly because I wanted to try and go back to sleep.

Okay, plan of action now available without much more than looking on the internet and looking up city codes.

Rained all day today - until just shortly before I got off of work.  For much of the day, it rained hard.  It was very nice and I was fully expecting an enjoyable afternoon listening to the rain on the roof and looking at it coming down out the windows and possibly even getting wet in doing some landscaping.

Instead, it's all of sudden bright, clear skies (this is normal for Arizona, you can go from clear blue skies to driving rain and back to clear blue skies all  in the same day and usually occurs very quickly).

Tomorrow: court.  Although I have no choice but to show up, the lady has stopped paying or communicating with me.  I don't care if it's $20 per month, if she isn't going to communicate then I want the money no matter how long it takes for her to pay it off.

Enough.  Have stuff to do outside.

ben

It's not that I forgot, I just didn't pay too close attention to the date.
This regarding the affidavit I was sent in the mail last month and looking at it again this morning.
The hearing is for tomorrow.
I don't just want to be there, I have to be there.
Fortunately, the hearing isn't too early and hopefully I will be able to leave work early.

Whatever.  Too much on the brain lately, some things getting shuffled into corners and not brought out until - almost too late in this case.

It was yesterday's second theft of money out of my bank account by someone using my debit card number - how they got it I have no idea - making a $200.69 purchase through Amazon - that got me going.

But I don't want to get all riled up again so not going there.  Have to leave for work in a few minutes, anyway.  This weekend has been strange, well actually sucked because of my neighbor's parties and loud music going into the wee hours of the morning.  I was so tired at church yesterday I got up halfway through the service and left.  I pretty much figured about the time the sermon was going to be preached, I would be falling asleep and that wouldn't go over too well.

I'm sure people were giving me looks as I was leaving, oh well and too bad, so sad.

Then there was the call to Direct TV to negotiate my payment.  That turned out fairly well, though I am considering either dumping channels to lower the bill or switching to Dish Network.  I am thinking dump channels as I don't particularly care for Dish Network.

G'day.


ben

I made the dreaded call to direct tv.
I bypassed the Philippine Islands and the people they have over there that are manning the incoming call centers.
I got connected to - a particular department that I now call or ask for not naming it here, thanks - and then got into a conversation with a man who eventually said no, he couldn't help me..

Thanks, your manager, please?  You can always tell they don't like that question, but when I ask, it's not going to be anything else, I have determined that only management can help me - if they can or will - so let's get on with it.

Manager gets on the phone and we get into an extended - very, very long - conversation.  But by the end of it, we were talking fishing, this that and the other thing.  The man was very generous, is all I can say, well, all I will say.  He helped me out and that's that.

I still think Direct TV is over priced and at some point, I will probably switch to either Cox or Dish Network - or some other new thing called Prism TV, just heard about it on a radio ad.  Probably won't go with the new one if it's originated by who I think it is.  Oh, yes, just looked it up: Century Link. I equate Century Link's customer service right "up" there with Direct TV, possibly even worse.  I just dumped Century Link and won't be going back anytime soon.

G'nite, it's my bedtime : )

ben

The people who live the next street over.
In recent times, they have gone on an unlimited free-for-all in turning up their music so loud, I can hear it in my living room and bedroom with the doors closed, windows shut, tv on, etc etc, etc.

Apparently everyone else that is subjected to this unbelievably BAD music- it's not just extremely loud, it horrible music to begin with - doesn't care.  I was hoping someone else would finally get sick of it and call the police.  When I call the police, yes they will come out - eventually, sometimes it's hours before they are free to even show up - but then they will just tell them to turn it down and leave.  There is no punitive action for the ordinance violation, so as soon as the police leave, they turn it right back up.

My first call to police was around 6 pm.  I was amazed that police made it so fast, it wasn't even 20 minutes and suddenly the music was turned down.  About half an hour later, music turned right back up.  I waited about an hour and called the police again.  "Did you send the police out to such and such location?".  Why yes we did, Mr. B, do they have it loud again?. YES, they DO.  We'll send someone right out.  Okay, thanks.

A little long for the police to get there the second time, but the music eventually goes down.  It's my bedtime, I go so sleep. I have ear plugs in and my box fan on - always do to help mask outside noises.  But it doesn't matter, it was somewhere around midnight or 1 am, I would have to look at my phone for when I made the third call, but the obnoxious noise that they call music was blaring now.  Like a mariachi band sitting in my bedroom.

I laid there for a while, hoping the noise would be lowered, but it wasn't. I was extremely cranky at this point.  I was going to call the police for the third time, if they weren't going to do anything about it then I was going to go over there myself.  I'm sure the consequences of that action probably would not have turned out too well, but I am SICK of these people who could care freaking less about anyone else in the entire neighborhood.

So I'm on the phone with this sweet sounding lady at police so I am trying to be nice.  We talk back and forth and I finally say: they don't CARE about the cops, they will just turn the music back up as soon as they leave.  Since the city of Phoenix doesn't seem to care to follow their own noise ordinances, I am just going to keep calling back all night long until you finally decide to DO something about this problem.  Of course that isn't really a threat to a person that is paid by the hour to answer the phone, but I wanted to make my point clear enough that perhaps should would relay it to the next officer/s that go out there.

My next course of action would be to talk to the Sergeant and find out why they refuse to do anything about this, ie: start writing citations.  The police must not have been that busy last night, because it wasn't 10 minutes and suddenly the noise was shut off.  I don't mean turned down, I mean turned all the way OFF.  Since their normal, modus-operandi is to play that s*** all night long, I have to assume that the police actually did - something about it this time instead of merely telling them to turn it down.

But I had to call them 3 times over a 6 hour span of time to get anything done about it. I have half a mind to go to Walmart right now and buy one of those obnoxiously loud air horns like they use at foot ball games, go stand out in front of their house and let 'er rip until the thing is empty.  It's 7:30 am, they've been partying all night long, see how THEY like it.

But I"ll refrain.  Instead, I am going to go on a police-calling campaign.  Every time they blast the music, I am immediately going to call the police.  Repeatedly, over and over.  This will generate a "file" against this house - though at this point there must already be one because this has been going on a long time.  But after enough of it for several weeks in a row, then I am going to call either the sergeant in this district or the city prosecutor's office and ask them to review the file on that particular address and also ask why they haven't done anything more than what they have - which up until now has been basically nothing more than a verbal command to tell them to turn it down.

It's raining and not just a little bit.  This is really good news for me.  The ground is getting completely saturated and it will be easy to pull weeds and whatever I want to pull out.

Oh my.  Stink bombs.  Never thought of that.  Harmless but effective. Hmmm.

Well, anyway, it's not getting any earlier and I plan on going to church today, so better get a move on.  Unfortunately, the rain has topped - but - not before it got the ground nicely soaked.  The sky is dark and "ominous", there is thunder and hopefully it will start raining again.

G'day.

ben

Friday here.  Work to be done - at work that is - which is a good thing.  I spent the day yesterday running around as well.
The operations manager almost ran me over yesterday in his pickup truck - literally - he was going 30 mph through our yard, I had just gotten out of the semi headed across the yard but caught his truck coming out of the corner of my eye.

No-one drives that fast through our yard.  Whatever the case, if I hadn't jerked myself to a stop he would have run clean over the top of me.  Well he stopped, terrified look on his face, I hoped incident would help him think about slowing down in the yard, lol.

When asked about the meeting yesterday - this was in the morning, before it had occurred - he was giving out no clues.  I was unabashedly pimping for info, the only thing I really got out of him was that Casa Grande should be in our territory, not 3083's.  I have been trying to get my manager to ask him about this for a while now, but since the opportunity came up, what the heck.  He smiled and said he would take care of it.

It means, if we get it back, more business and bottom line numbers for our store.  The main warehouse manager simply decided to take it away from us at one point and that was that.  We are much closer to Casa Grande, there is a road from our store that is almost a straight shot down there and it used to be ours.  I dunno why he thought he could just steal it from us, but we are, apparently going to get it back.

It is also a bit of a drive - I am getting so sick of being stuck in the east valley and not really getting OUT of it excepting to head west into Phoenix to pick up material for deliveries.  A truck driver being stuck in the same, small area, all the time?  Yikes!

Well, time to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Changes at work. Undoubtedly, something coming down the pike and probably, that news will be given out today to branch managers.  That's cause' they are having their yearly end of year get together for the managers.  They go to a fancy resort place and eat some fine food.   Talk of bonuses should arise but also talk of what they are going to do at the main branch will undoubtedly also be covered.

Our branch is doing so poorly now, I can't imagine they won't enact some kind of changes there as well. What those changes are, I don't know yet.  They have thrown out a few things but in the end, you can never really guess.  You just go with the flow and hope the changes aren't so radical that it is upsetting or otherwise disarming in nature.

Well, time caught me and I have to be off to work.

G'day.

ben

Driving through Fry's parking lot today.  Going 5 mph or less.  Prolly less, I am no hurry with a bunch of humans around.  A guy gets out of his car, babbling on his cellphone, he walks towards the store, along and next to a line of cars.  I am up to him when he starts to walk in front of me, but I'm already there, just slowly keep cruising.

I must have an anger problem.  This guy goes livid.  I don't even know what's going on excepting the person that works for Fry's is looking up with a discerned face over the top of my car. I couldn't hear anything, I was looking over at her to make sure we weren't going to - connect in an very unfortunate way - since she was in the driveway but on the side, dealing with shopping carts.

I look the other way and here is this black dude, glaring at me and mouthing off.  I stopped the car and opened the door. What's going on?  You need to slow down, blah blah blah.  Trash talk.  I don't get into that crap and I won't tolerate it.  Something around a 20 year old punk going on and on. I frankly told him if he hadn't been so consumed by his phone call, he might have actually LOOKED to see if a car was coming.  MUCH more trash talk.   I finally told him where he could stick it and I would be happy to stick something up there if he continued.  His verbiage was getting really bad, to the point I wanted to get out of my car and knock his teeth out of his head.

Not much the words of a Christian, much less the thoughts of one.  I forced myself to not say another word after the line that told him a baseball bat could be forced up his @$$. This isn't worth it.  I have to get over this stuff.  The enemy pushing my buttons, using people to do it.  I really wanted to just shut him up and then, I stopped.  I just closed the door to the car and drove off.  These kids thinking they are bad, my gosh, starting crap with people they don't know, don't know what those people are capable of.  I was waiting for him to kick or hit my car, though, and the car would have stopped immediately and the situation would have been dealt with post-haste.

When such things happen, my teenage years leap into my mind and things that I shouldn't even be entertaining go into my head.  I HAVE to find a way to tame all of this.  This guy was looking for trouble, I most definitely was NOT.  But it takes an instasecond for me get into the mode, which is unacceptable.  Sometimes the things from the past that come into my head to do to people that are starting s*** with me are unbelievable after the event is over and I start backtracking after away from the situation. WHAT was I THINKING?  I wasn't thinking, just letting raw emotion take over.

I didn't care in my teenage years and most of the people I hung out with didn't care, either.  Someone gonna start trouble, they BETTER be ready to back it up, because we were all over it. I could tell stories, but - well anyway.  My fighting days started the first day of Kindergarten in the slums of Pittsburgh and "grew" from there.  This is something that I have, actually, gotten much better at, but obviously still have a ways to go.

I can only say that at least I drove off.

Gag. Sticking point in my life, gotta just find it within myself to bless those people, let it go and move on.

This I know: These situations are going to keep occurring until I am fully over it, released from it, have it dealt with in my life and I can just smile and say sorry, even if I didn't DO anything wrong.  That's the hard part! People starting trouble with other people about something the other person didn't do!  Yet, I understand the enemy and how he works, I still, so far, fall for it every time.

Done with that.  Tomorrow, my manager is going to be gone after a few hours there in the morning and they aren't sending anyone to take over the branch.  Which is not that big of a deal - but I will be out on the road and that new kid - the one with the mouth and attitude - will be "running" it.  He is still doing more of nothing than working. I am ignoring him at this point, instead of speaking my mind.  I don't much care for people that "work" at a place for an hourly wage yet screw off at least half the day and apparently are getting away with it.  It's obvious he won't be doing ANYTHING while everyone is out of the building.

Lol, but I AM getting over that.  They want to let him sit around screwing off, then let them and him.

Enough.

ben

No business, whatsoever, being in my neighbor's back yard.  This referring to 350 man.
I promised my next door neighbor I would keep a watch out for him - 350 man - doing anything to my neighbor's fence.  350 started to erect a fence that is well into my neighbor's yard quite some time ago.  He got the posts up and that's where it ended.

So when I saw him IN my neighbor's back yard, poking through Randy's (my neighbor) stuff, I called Randy, who is currently in Michigan at his summer home.  Randy, I said, 350 man and Sam are in your back yard.  They took down your fence and are welding on 350 man's fence.

Randy went into a conniption, I would have too considering the circumstances, I asked him if he were going to call the police? Yes.  I call him back about 10 minutes later, Randy informs me the police tell him that it's a civil matter and to take it up in the courts.  How is trespassing on private property a civil matter and how can the police interpret it like that?

Randy pleads with me, telling me he gives me his full authority to go onto his property.  Though I neither like Sam nor 350 man, I was not inclined to get involved with this, but I relented. I got my camera, turned on  the video portion of it and started videoing my walk over to Randy's house/property.  350 man disappears, as I thought he would.  Catching him on video both trespassing on private property and attempting to finish a fence that he KNOWS is OFF of HIS property could be used in the courts against him.  But Sam could have cared less.  "You're tresspassing on private property", he tells me.  This is Randy's property, I replied, of which I have his permission to be here.

I asked him if he thought it was okay to be standing on Randy's property and basically helping 350 man steal a portion of it by helping him erect this fence? Was it okay to take down Randy's fence?  Well, he didn't tell me I couldn't be on his property.  Well maybe you should call him and ask him - Sam and Randy have known each other for a LONG time, they have each other's phone numbers.  Sam made a comment about if Randy wants to talk to him, he can call him.  I said fine, I'll have Randy call you right now, do you have your phone?  Sam goes to get his phone - none too happy that I am recording all of this - and I leave.  There was no way I was going to leave myself exposed to lies or potentially even police action by having them making a false accusation against me - it wouldn't be the first time - I had my eye witness with me and I already have it posted on Youtube so that it can't "disappear".

That was it for my part.  I did what I could.  Had it been my property the whole situation, of course, would have never started in the first place, I would have already taken 350 man to court on the property issue and a judge would have already made a ruling on it.  But that's me.  I was going to do nothing more except call Randy, inform him I have a video of Sam doing the fence (and unknown to 350 man, I may not have gotten a video of him back there, but I DID snap several pics of him working on the fence on Randy's side of it).

Well, 3-day holiday weekend over, back to the  wonderful prospect of going to work.  But this morning should be okay, I have a load to pick up downtown and take to north Phoenix.  Not part of my normal territory, but the main branch is swamped and couldn't do it - we are not swamped and we can pretty much do whatever at this point.  We will ever get busy again?  I dunno, I can only wish.

G'day.

ben

Halfway through the holiday weekend.
A man at work that was let go (fired) a week or so ago was found dead in his apartment bedroom by his young son 2 days ago.
Although I have an idea as to why he was fired, I don't have the actual specifics.
What I do know is that he takes rejection type of things very hard, well took them very hard now.

Here's the part that's hard for me.  Whether you believe in prophecy and the gift of prophecy in the church isn't really relevant to me, because I have been operating in that gift for quite some time now.  Not that that makes me anything, it just happens.  So it was in this man's case, but I completely ignored the signs and did nothing about it.  Every time I saw him, the thought "he is suicidal" or something along those lines would pop up in my mind.  I would even see a sign saying " suicidal" before my eyes.

To look at the man, you would not have recognized that.  He was walking around all happy and life was grand, at least on the outward appearance.

I have no idea whether this man was right with the Lord, though many will say that a person committing suicide is hell-bound just by that action alone.  I am not God, I don't know how the Lord sees such things and I do not make such brash conclusions.  I sincerely hope that that is not the case.  I sometimes hear Christians making some pretty - vile - judgments against people, groups, things they don't like and wonder.  Yes, I believe there is a hell but also yes, I don't believe the Lord really wants any humans to end up there.  It wasn't made for people, it was made for satan and the fallen angels that were kicked out of heaven with him.  Perhaps I have made such judgments myself in the past but I am coming to the view that hell is such a BAD place, that one really shouldn't desire that anyone end up there.

I dunno, but I am going to go to church this morning and seek some relief from this.  It weighs heavily on me - the fact that I did nothing about it.  I don't know what I could have said to that man, at work, without getting into some hot water if it blew up in my face, but that's not an excuse, really.

Welcome to my holiday weekend.

Well it's nice having an extended weekend off, anyway.

ben

Gag.
Take a day off in the middle of the week and it messes your head all up. Remind me to make SURE I either get the 2 days off before Christmas or 2 days off after, preferably after.  You just get into your head that it's
Saturday and that you have the next day off, too.

That's okay, I get my revenge: 3 day holiday weekend en-queue.  It wouldn't be so bad going back to work if there was actually something to do!  If it stays this way for too much longer, I have to wonder what is going to happen to our store.  They won't just leave it open forever if it's not producing enough on the bottom line.

I have no idea whether there is anything in the truck routing system, just have to find out when I get work in a little while from now.

Well we got Caleb out and off, that's behind me now, moving on.  To what, I don't know, but moving on.   But I was kind of appalled when I went into his room yesterday after I got back from the airport.  Dirty clothes laying all over the floor and some trash, bed not made.  He just left it like this?  Kinda got me a bit upset that he would leave his room in a shambles.  He apparently forgot his necklaces, too.  One is a cross and I think the other is SA's version of dog tags.

Whatever.  I started to clean the mess up, got well into it but decided to let it go until today.  I was too blooming tired.  I'm telling you, when I stay up past my bedtime, I just pay for it the next day.

Well, enough.  Off to work.

G'day.

ben

I stayed up late last night with Caleb. Like past midnight late - that's really late for me - and then woke up tired and groggy this morning.  Glad I took the day off work.
He was dealing with last minute stuff this morning and then we headed over to my ex's house to pick her up and then headed off to the airport.
U.S. Airways, charges for each checked bag. We got away with only paying for the large bag at $25 and then his smaller bag he was allowed to take on board the plane, so didn't have to shell out another $35, which was really good cause' I am counting my pennies right now.

Off the subject for one line of sentence, we should be getting our end-of-fiscal-year bonus within the next month or two, that will help immensely.

Well, we got his bags checked in, his boarding pass, all that stuff and then off to sit down and spend our last hour plus talking. At close to an hour before the flight leaves, Caleb was picking up his stuff and heading down the aisle.  Mom was like, already?  Yes, we had sat there talking for a long time, Caleb  was obviously ready to be done with us and Phoenix and all of it - not in a bad way, he's a very respectful kid but he's totally psyched about going over there - so I said yes, it's time.  He should be going through that security checkpoint at least an hour before the flight leaves, at least, that's how I do it.  Make sure there are no issues and if there are, you have time to deal with it.

Remember the days when you could just go with the person all the way to the waiting area to board the plane?  I wish it was still that way.  If a person wants to bomb or blow up a plane or use a plane as a bomb and if they are motivated enough to do whatever it takes - such as 9/11 - they they are probably going to be able to do it regardless of security checkpoints.  It might make it harder for them, but not impossible.  Whatever, I'm sure that will never change now that it's implemented so deal with it.

Watched him go through security and then he walked right off without looking back, he was gone.
Took the ex home, we had a conversation about some things going on in people's lives - pretty serious stuff actually, nothing I am going to go into here - got her home and me?  Got back here and sat down.  I'm am exhausted from staying up too late last night.  I have nothing pressing to do today, which is a good thing.

Still, I happened to look up at the clock a while ago and realized I could go outside and watch his plane taking off!  I can't see the runway but you can definitely see planes leaving the airport and heading up into the sky.  At 1:59, a US Airways jet took off, it looked like a 757 and it was at the exact time it should be there. Another plane on an adjacent runway had taken off a minute or so earlier, but it was a Southwest plane - you can pretty much easily identify the brand even from 4 miles away.  I watched that plane flying up and up - then level off a bit - and then it disappeared into the clouds.  There goes my son!

Momma cried, I had a light misting in my eyes. I realized I had gotten all - or most of it anyway - out of my system at church on Sunday.  God really dealt with me about some things after I had started thinking him leaving, so the tears were on Sunday, today it was just cool to see my boy heading off into a new life, an unknown adventure, what does God have in store for him?  Took me back to my missionary days when there were many times you didn't know what was going to happen next or how God was going to provide.

Lately, Africa has been put on my heart.  I don't really know anyone in Africa, I know of some missions over there but don't know the people running them personally. My gosh, though, there has got to be more to life than clocking in 5 days a week at 6 am and doing the same thing, day after day after day.  I know I shouldn't worry about such things because the Lord is our provider, but I think about going back to the mission field but then I think about my golden years and how it will be to be totally broke, no money, just getting social security checks to live off of, which aren't even a guaranteed thing anyway.

Well whatever.  2 more days of work and then a 3 day holiday weekend.  I don't think I will do much of anything, I'm ready to just stay home and mess around the house and yard.  Just checked, it's almost 3,000 miles to Hawaii.  I was curious because it's a 6 hour flight, much of it over open water.  I'm envious!! I want to fly overseas, too!

G'day.

ben

Less than 24 hours now.
Will I get past this?
Of course.
Will my son be okay?
I trust in the Lord to watch over him.
Will I shed some tears at the airport?
You better believe it.
I don't care what other people think about
men crying, there are situations where it is
not only appropriate, it is warranted.  I am
most certainly not a wimp/pussy-whipped,\
lemonade-bleeding, yellow-bellied sissy.
I don't mean that in a violent type of way, I
am a man and I am a man that cries when it
happens - which is infrequently but yes, it happens.

I love my son dearly.  There are a handful of people
I love on this earth - no offense to long time readers,
many of you I really like : ) - but nothing even in the same
realm as a father and son.  I know it may be more unusual
in this day and age of fatherless (well, they have fathers but
they are nowhere to be found) offspring to actually be
a man and a father that will openly state that I really 
love my son, but so it is.  He means the world to me. I
 would gladly sacrifice my life for him if such were to ever
occur.

For me, this is a monumental step in my son's life.  This is
parting of ways, so to speak, but in a good sense obviously.
It's the natural course of things, your offspring, at least in this
culture (other cultures a bit different I have read, heard and
experienced first hand).  It is what should happen, I do not
believe your offspring should be living with you well into
their 20's, much less 30's or the rest of your life.  They should
find their own way and they should go for it.

I can say that I instilled this into my son since he was a single
digit aged human.  I always told him that if he wanted to live
with me after he got out of high school, he BETTER be going
to college or doing something that will lead to a career.

I think someday he will thank me for putting that into his head
and his heart.  How can you venture out in life and experience it
for yourself if you keep yourself chained to your parents house
and their rules?  I see all this nonsense going on with the younger
generation and I find it totally unbelievable.

My son has a good head on his shoulders and I am confident that he
will do well in life.  That doesn't necessarily mean he will make a
lot of money, I don't measure success in life as being rich and owning
a lot of things, I would rather measure life in the sense of what you
did in obedience to the Lord's calling on your life and how you applied
it to your life.

This is the way I look at some things in life.

I am happy my son is going, in case anyone is getting the wrong idea.
It's just that my heart and my inner man has to get used to the idea
that he won't be at my house and us having long talks about the Lord
and the things going on in both our lives.

Ben

Shake up at work today.
Got in and found an email from the ops manager: So and So is no longer with the company.
He was an inside salesman.  They have recently hired people to take inside sales positions, but they have no clue what they are doing yet, it's a pretty long learning process to learn the business and learn everything that goes into being and inside salesman.

So, this morning we find out the GM is coming to our branch - he doesn't do that often, maybe once every 6 months.  We have no clue.  I leave before he gets there, not a lot to do but we tend to get stuff done when it is in the system to get done.  By the time I get back, he is already gone and the situation is that he is asking my manager if he will at least temporarily move back downtown and take over an inside sales position so that they aren't short-handed while these other guys get the training and get up to speed.

Ummm, well, that didn't sound very good.  Especially finding out the main warehouse manager would come over to our place.  I get along with him, I guess, but I find my current manager much better than him.  When I find out who would take over the main warehouse, well that's even worse.  That guy is - not very good.  He thinks he knows everything and has that kind of attitude.  He is not a good manager in terms of how to treat employees.  But the biggest drawback to this dude is that he tells everyone no when they ask him if they can squeeze in a delivery.  He doesn't even consider it, he just blankly tells them he can't do it.  In a business like ours, we find ways to make things happen.  The main branch has several vehicles, not just semis, that can be used for pickups and deliveries.  There are numerous people that are authorized to use regular, company vehicles.  It's a joke to just flatly say no, we won't do it.

But whatever, that's not my decision.  My manager told the GM he would rather not move downtown but if they need the help, he will both run the store AND do inside sales work.  He also offered that I could take a position down there - as I said I would but only if they don't lower my wages.  Apparently it's some company thing that they may not be able to transfer me to such a position without lowering my wages, I would not agree to that so if that's the case, it's a non-starter.

So that's that.  No idea what the final decision will be.  I doubt, though, that it will take them long to make those decisions, once they start on something like this, they waste no time in implementing it.  So we'll see.

Meanwhile, the countdown: 2 days.  My son is gone for a year, leaving in 2 days.  Not too much more time and right now he's hanging out with his mom at her house.  Has been since yesterday morning.  I do hope he will come back over here and spend a few last minutes with me, but that's not something I would ask him to do, just hoping.

That's it.  Took a bunch of the Hostess I got from church yesterday to work - that all disappeared.  I ate one small bag of it - too much calories in that junk, not worth eating too much of it, but there are 2 junk food junkies at work.  I don't know how or why the church got all of that stuff - no clue.  It's all the new stuff that the newly revamped Hostess is putting out.  Hostess is back, though I don't know if they have the entire line of stuff going yet.

ben

So, I have Wednesday off - to see Caleb off on at the airport - and then a 3 day holiday weekend coming up.  I'm not really looking forward to Wednesday, to be honest, just because of the significance of what is going to take place.  I had always wanted at least 3 kids, would have helped mitigate this situation if such were the case.  But it isn't and now the so-called "empty nest syndrome".  Doesn't mean I'm not happy for my son in pursuing his dream, I just know how my heart felt yesterday at church when I started pondering this whole situation.

Anyway, the party on Saturday.  I didn't go into it with the pics I posted because I didn't have the time when I posted it, lol.  I was going somewhere, don't even remember what now.  Anyway, I sat down at a table with 2 old friends and we started making jokes.  Pretty funny stuff, actually, then a 4th person and another old friend I hadn't seen in ages sat down.  After reacquainting ourselves yet more came and sat down with us.  So it went until a man came up through a side door, squinting at me and a look of recognition.

I had no idea who this person was, but he definitely recognized me.  I just sat there and said hello to him after he came up shaking my hand and spent two hours after that attempting to figure out who this person was.  It finally came back to my memory.  He used to go to the same church I went to now going on a decade ago - we weren't really close or anything so I think that why he had been put into the dark storages of the basement portion of my memory banks, lol.

But there was a completely different atmosphere there, much different than the last time I was there for a party for whatever reason, which was at least a year ago.  The old abrasiveness of what had occurred at the church had rubbed off.  The air wasn't charged with negativity and it was a cool party.  I determined myself to make the rounds and speak with everyone that I knew from the past there, whether I wanted to or not, lol.  Also met some new people that were there because of Caleb.  On attempting to leave, I got hung up with yet 2 more people and we talked for at least another 30 minutes - which is when I remember it was my dad's birthday!

So I went over by where Caleb was, made the phone call and we both wished him a happy birthday and talked for a while.

That was it for the party, 4 hours of talking was enough for me.  There was a good hour long portion of it where we took pics and then we all prayed over Caleb - and by that I mean just about every individual and couple there not only prayed over him, but gave him prophetic words.  It was good.  I recorded much of it and intend on putting it on a disc for Caleb to listen to if he so desires, there was a lot spoken over him and in such events like that, it's difficult to remember everything that was said.

And now? Monday morning, lol, another weekend cashed out and gone, there was NOTHING in the truck routing system for today as of the time I left Friday afternoon.  I surely hope that something was put in there over the weekend, because there is NOTHING to DO at the shop at this point.  We have dealt with everything, the place is clean and I have no desire to sit around on my @$$ all day, attempting to burn up 8 hours.  I can't do that, I'll figure out something to do if such is the case, but I hope it isn't the case.

With that, I bid you a g'day.

ben